The Crusade was scheduled to depart from Forge World Anuaris, sadly not one in my close contact list.

But it was never too late to make new friends.

Just like this good Inquisitor Ramaeus and her silver cube with Necron sigils. It wasn't a solar system range tesseract like my own, and more like the one I gave to Sly Marbo, but still encrypted and holding a million Necrons in stasis inside.

We got a bit closer during the trip, but not really close. The woman was damaged and skewed by her task, something to do with an Eldar Cabal and their Dark Pattern.

I wasn't all that worried. Generally the Eldar were simply trying to help, in strange and unwelcome ways. Of course, there were many Cabals, and one of them aimed to exterminate all life in the galaxy to deny Chaos victory by ending the source of nightmares and dreams. Pretty much what the Men of Iron had tried as well, and nearly succeeded.

Other Cabals were trying to bring forth new gods, or kill some gods or both. Other Cabals were searching for Divine Vessels to host the Emperor's soul or even summoning the Omnissiah, like the Omnissiads. And I kinda suspected some of my 'friends' of adhering to this cabal, specially the Fabricators of Antax and Triplex Phall.

And the Fabricator of Anuaris wasn't too friendly, which was both good and bad.

Good, because friendly techpriests were likely to dissect you to find out what made you tick. And bad because I wasn't given all the weapons and modifications to the weapons I wanted.

I had hoped to obtain more Tarantula drop-pods and Sentinels, but I only got a few thousands, which wasn't nearly enough.

Same for Hydra Flak Tanks or enough torpedoes to massacre a Hive Fleet if we encountered one.

But for this reluctance to help, I took revenge and emptied his stores of more classic Chimeras and Baneblades, had one Ork Terror ship transformed into a Marauder-bomber carrier, with 5000 bombers, and demanded that all Astartes Battlebarges from the dozen Chapters selected for the Crusade be retro-fitted with Nova Cannons and warp-less engines.

This took even a large Forge World like Anuaris an entire year, so I could visit Forge World Amontep_II nearby and requisition the lascannon turrets I wanted, plus more torpedoes and Sentinels.

The Fabricator of Amontep even provided 20 Knights from House Terryn of Voltoris, and thus he was rewarded with an Ork Terror ship filled with blackstone and adamantium, plus a hundred valuable STC templates.

When the year had passed, Forge Konor arrived with a million of Skitarii on a XL Mechanicus carrier and three Ark Mechanicus cruisers, without even asking for their help. Sure I had helped them in the past, and they owed their Forge World status to me, but it was rare to see the Mechanicus act like this. Perhaps they could learn, or perhaps they were simply bribing me for extra materials and STC templates. Most likely both of that, but I didn't mind.

Make yourself useful, and you will be rewarded. It was a simple trade, although the Inquisitor was rather surprised and suspicious why Forge Konor would act like this now, and not during other Crusades.

"I know for certain you did not call Forge Konor to aid you, as I was right beside you for this entire year." The woman muttered a bit displeased, while her bodyguard Watch Captain Mathias nodded in agreement. They did live in my rooms, which made me lose precious work on the STCs, but I compensated by producing more babies.

"Quite correct, my dear. I'll have to find something to reward Forge Konor with during this Crusade. A blackstone Mining World perhaps, or some ancient STC pattern lying around in my inventory." I mused to myself, opening the galactic map for an easy target.

Some Necron base without a C'tan defending it, which would make things rather complicated.

I rarely used the cogitator in my apartment, mainly for supply and human resource work, arranging the troops and equipment plus their provisions and munitions.

Being in charge of a big Crusade was hard work too, not that I even tried doing everything by myself.

I had a command staff and I wasn't afraid to use it. Plus a couple of Knight pilots from House Terryn were women, which made integrating them under me much easier. By the time the year had passed, the pilots were even back for light duty, three children born and even a Blank boy among them. By our agreement, I would keep the boy for my Chapter, while they will have two new pilots and even new Knights for them, in a decade or two.

The former Imperial world of Icnarus was out, because they did have a C'tan and quite a strong one. Nothing urgent anyway.

I needed to head towards Jericho Reach now, and save Hive World Avalos, before Hive_Fleet_Dagon reached it.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Decision made, the troop transports housing 100 Astra Militarum regiments departed under escort from 200 frigates and destroyers, while a recon force of 100 Navy corvettes with Warp-engines sped ahead, to scout the terrain and map out the opposition.

The capital ships formed up in five task forces commanded by my Blank daughters on board Lamenter battlebarges, each grouped around a fleet carrier.

We would travel on parallel vectors spread a light-year apart, such that we didn't miss any enemies on the way.

Of course, Finona was quite lucky and found a Space Hulk drifting about not even a week into the Crusade, which consumed all her torpedoes to break up into manageable bits. Luckily there were a Company of Ultramarines and Novamarines and other Space Marines in her task force, to pacify and cleanse the derelicts and I also sent the Forge Konor troops there to help.

Surely, their Forge World could use gigatonnes of free metal, after the Hulk was conquered and towed away bit by bit to be melted and reforged.

Much better to sacrifice Skitarii and servitors for this long and perilous task, than poor guardsmen with lasguns and bayonets.

By the time we managed to reach Avalos, another task force lead by my daughter Teresa had deviated to help with an Ork Waagh, aided by the Knights of House Terryn.

A dozen regiments and 40 destroyers were sent there to help reconquer a dozen planets for the Imperium, and I detached two Drop-cruisers as well. They probably contained ten times as much firepower as the poorly armed guardsmen regiments, and I even had 2 Leviathans and 20 techmarines ready to assist. Doesn't sound as much, until they each begin to remote-control 100 Guardian turrets and unleash greater firepower than two entire Astartes Chapters, while the Leviathan Dreadknights are ready and able to beat up Ork Bosses with their own limbs.

We found the Hive World in turmoil, genestealer cults revolting while the Hive Fleet was already blocking Warp-travel with their Shadow in the Warp, even from light years away. Good thing we didn't use the Warp then, right?

It took me a minute to analyze the star system and formulate a plan, then I began sending orders to my fleets, grouping the heavier ships in the middle and the faster cruisers for harassment and flank attacks.

And then out lander began transporting troops to quell the rebellions, and I even managed to locate an Inquisitor Lady trying to shoot a Tyranid Broodlord with her plasma pistol.

Most of her retinue was already dead, except two Deathwatch marines with Storm Shields and Power Weapons, desperately trying to defend the brave Inquisitor from the xenos bio-titan. It worked about as well as you can imagine, as I did try that scenario with 200 Astartes with melee weapons, and didn't go well for 23 test runs.

However, everything changed when a couple of Silent Sisters wearing Leviathan Dreadknights materialized in front and back of the Broodlord. Chop, shoot, slash, shoot.

It was over in ten seconds, and then they continued onwards, butchering genestealers and cultists while a Lamenter techmarine in a heavily armored Armed Sentinel arrived with his retinue of Guardians to secure the perimeter.

"Are you alright, Brothers?" the new techmarine asked on the Vox caster.

"The Emperor protects! We were about to discharge our last duty." a Veteran Deathwatch answered in relief, and checked on his boss. "Lady Kalistradi, are you injured anywhere? These filthy beasts are poisonous."

The woman crashed to her knees and drew a deep breath. "I saw my death...but I was saved. The Lamenters?"

"Yes, Inquisitor. We only have three Battle-Brothers, including the Master...although he's not a real...well. He does a great job, and he sent me and the Sisters here. Don't worry you're safe now." the man declared in a proud voice, while his Guardians walking turrets fired volley after volley of lascannons and torrents of multilasers with incredible accuracy.

"... Then, I shall have to offer my thanks to your Chapter Master, Lamenter. So those black voids of nightmare were Silent Sisters?" the woman asked, holstering her useless pistol and glancing after the Leviathans with a shudder.

I smiled inward as I focused my attention back of the fleet deployment. Generals Reila and Regina had the ground warfare part covered, while Colonel Jenit was heading down with 3 Auxilia armor regiments and 60 more techmarines, to set up defenses for the main Hive City of Lordsholm.

Of course my Chapter's armor regiments were nothing like the normal Astra Militarum units, with 20 times more warmachines, and lots of drones and ground-attack craft in support.

A couple of different Chapters Astartes Companies were already on the surface and knee-deep in blood, brutally quelling the rebellions while my techpriests and servitors were also preparing to deploy and use the captured rebels and cultists for Omnissiah's work, converting them into more servitors and digging trenches, setting minefields or simply being marched out as forward artillery observers.

We still had a month til the main bulk of the Hive Fleet arrived, quite enough time to drag a hundred asteroids for a minimal array of orbital forts, and hit-and-run attacks by Nova Cannon cruisers.

In the grim future of the 41st Millennium there is only war, and I learned to love it.